New York City Council Speaker and mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn. / Seth Wenig, AP

by Martha T. Moore , USA TODAY

by Martha T. Moore , USA TODAY

No political gulf can loom as wide as the personal one between people with kids and people without.

When Chirlane McCray, the wife of New York City mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, made a comment about his rival Christine Quinn not being someone you could talk to about the difficulties of parenthood, Quinn slapped back - and didn't back down even when the de Blasio campaign correctly claimed that McCray had been misquoted.

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd quoted McCray in a Wednesday column saying Quinn is "not accessible ... She's not the kind of person I feel I can go up to and talk to about issues like taking care of children at a young age and paid sick leave." McCray and de Blasio, the city's elected public advocate, have children; Quinn, the speaker of the City Council, and her wife, Kim Catullo, do not.

"No one should comment on my family as if it is something that makes me less capable as an elected official,'' Quinn said Wednesday, calling McCray's remarks "sad and hurtful.'' She pointed to her sponsorship of a state law making kindergarten mandatory in the city and a law requiring hospitals to tell uninsured patients that financial aid is available.

After the de Blasio campaign produced an audiotape of the interview, the Times corrected McCray's quote to read, "I don't see (Quinn) speaking to the concerns of women who have to take care of children at a young age or send them to school and after school, paid sick days, workplace, she is not speaking to any of those issues. What can I say? And she is not accessible, she is not the kind of person who you can talk to and go up to and have a conversation with about those things, and I suspect that other women feel the same thing I'm feeling."

Both families would break new ground if elected: de Blasio is white and McCray is African American; Quinn and Catullo are gay. The de Blasio campaign has prominently featured McCray and the couple's children,. Dante and Chiara, both of whom have starred in ads for their dad. Catullo, a lawyer, has been less visible and has said she doesn't like to give interviews.

The de Blasio campaign said McCray was talking about policy, not personal lives. In a statement, campaign manager Bill Hyers said Quinn "owns a history of ignoring everyday New Yorkers'' because, for instance, she does not support de Blasio's proposal to raise taxes on high-income residents to pay for universal pre-kindergarten.